Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1887-05-19
UPPER ARKANSAS.
The Splendid Agricultural Country
Tributary to Great Bend in Barton
County, Kansas.
A Growing City That is. to Be a
Commercial and an Educa-
tiOnal Center.

GREAT BEND, Barton County, Kan,
May 6, 1887 Barton County occupies
a central position in relation to the geo.
graphical subdivisions of the state and
the Upper Arkansas Valley" This
far-famed valley has been truthfully
called the PASTORAL heart of the con-
tinent," for its record of crops, as sta
tistics prove, have diStanced all others
whenever they have been brought into
competition.
Great Bend, the county seat, is on
the main line of the Atchison, Topeka
81 Santa Fe railroad, 2S6 miles from
Kansas City, via this route. This city
has a population of nearly 5000, which
is increasing in a remarkably healthy
degree in response to the boom" which
has inspired it, and evinces business
activity comparable to the proper in
depreciation of that western creation
in photography. Nothing is inflated
here, values on property are not ficti-
tious; there are no ''board Of trade
speculations'' in real estate; all trans
ferS are legitimate, and are daily ma
terialiZing in business blocks and resi-
denceS.
The splendid agricultural country
tributary is sufficiently rich in its posi-
bilitieS to warrant q city here of at
least 10000 in a year OF two. The per-
manent county seat, Great Bend, has
no rivals, and is assured Of its future.
1t is rapidly aggregating all those met
rOpOlltan appointments necessary to
the modern progressive American city.
1t is lighted by electricity, the plant of
which is of the most recently improved
methods, and is on firm, paying basis.
a street-car line will be commenced in
a few days, its charter having been
procured, and the material for its con-
structiOn is on its way. More hotel
room was imperatively demanded, and
two large brick and stone structures
have been commenced, to be completed
by midsummer. A very handsome
opera house, finely appointed, has just
been opened; three new business blocks
are nearly finished; another series is
up to the first story, and more than
800 residences are contracted for, whose
value will range from 81 600 to SIS, 900.
Natural gas is among the pOssibili-
ties; that spontaneous product having
been discovered recently in another pOr-
ton of the state, in the same geOlOg-
ical formation, a company was organ
lied and chartered last week with a
capital of $4,000, all paid in, for the
purpose of sinking an experimental
shaft, the appliances for which are eX-
pected to arrive daily.
GRERT BEND
aspires to be an educational center; it
is already the seat of the Central
Kansas College''-a denominational in
stitutiOn owned by the Arkansas Val
ley Congregational Association" 1t
has Il capacity for 800 resident students.
and one of its important features is CO.
education of the sexes. 1t is literally
endowed, which insures an erudite fac
ulty. Its main hall, anneXeS and dor
matOrieS are handsome in their archi-
lecture, constructed of brick with stone
trimmings, are located within the city
limits, surrounded by a fair-SiZed cam
puS, which is shaded and Ornamented.
a normal school will also be erected
here this season, sufficient moneys hay
ing been appropriated to insure hand
some architectural series of necessary
buildings. Two additional ward school
houses have been voted for, and will be
erected Immediately, at Il cost of $25,-
600. a large tract contiguous to the
city has just been purchased. which
will he converted into a park; it has a
wealth of timber upon it. and will be
an ornament. Great Bend has three
railroads, two of them trunk lines, the
Atchison, Topeka Il Santa Fe, cOmmu-
nicating directly with the Atlantic and
Pacific sea-boards: the Missouri Pa
cifc, to ST. Louis and the Gulf, and
the c., *. & w, following the entire
length of
THE beautiful VALLEY
of the Walnut, and on to Denver.
Two more routes are chartered, with a
strong probability of their reaching
here this fall; one northeast to Neb
raska, connecting with thg Il. X NJ. for
Chicago 3ad lAe lakess tile other south
west to Texas and the Indian Terrific
ry. Great Bend is laid out with a
square or plaza in the business center,
and handsome court house of brick
and stone, surrounded by symmet-
rical and we'll shaded park. graoe9 II.
The county comprises an area of
$4,000 square acres of land. but not
fiat prairie. and all oultivable. with the
exception of a limited range of breaks
on the north where "A tine building
stone is quarried. Over one-half is the
famous bottom land of the valley,
which averages more than ten feet in
depth. In short time this whole re-
gion will be one grand aggregation of
magnificent farms, Land iAeIeases
yearly hele in /. constant ratio, and am
other season will see greater enhance
ment. Fortunate are those who come
to Kansas in lss7.-hater-Oceat.